A Hotspots virtualization technology, also referred to as a hotspot virtualization technology, refers to that a virtual network technology, such as a virtual local area network (Virtual Local Area Network, VLAN) or a virtual private network (Virtual Private Network, VPN), is used to virtualize a network at layer 3 to logically classify stations connect to a same air interface into different groups according to different operators, for management and communication. The Hotspots virtualization technology can implement sharing of a same service set identifier (Service Set Identifier, SSID) network resource among different operators. A service of a user of each operator is returned to a network of a home operator of the user by using a network of a Hotspots operator by using a tunneling technology. Therefore, it may be considered that the service of the user is directly provided by the network of the home operator of the user.
The Hotspots virtualization technology has the following advantages:
(1) the home operator may configure policies (such as IP address allocation, firewall configuration, and content filtering).
(2) a broadcast domain is virtualized, and stations communicate only within a group.
(3) the home operator is responsible for the Proxy Address Resolution Protocol (Proxy ARP) and proxy neighbor discovery.
Compared with a practice of allocating different SSIDs to different operators, the Hotspots virtualization technology has the following advantages:
(1) scalability is higher, and it is unnecessary to configure a new SSID on each Hotspot for each new operator.
(2) there are fewer air interface overheads, and sending of beacon frames and probe frames is reduced.
(3) a trend of centralized development of existing networks is met.
A main advantage of the hotspot virtualization technology lies in that the user may directly enjoy a same service as in the network of the home operator by using another network. That is, the user considers an access point in Hotspots virtualization as an access point provided by the home operator.
In the existing virtual Hotspot2.0 technology, when an access point (AP) connected to networks of multiple operators is provided by other operators than a home operator of a user equipment (UE), and the home operator of the UE uses the hotspot virtualization technology on the AP, the UE may consider that the AP is provided by the home operator of the UE in this case, but in the prior art, the UE cannot identify this situation, and therefore cannot preferentially select the network of the home operator of the UE to access a communications network by using the AP.